Ryu’s Musings – Angel Heart

angelheartLanguage: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: No Official Page Count
by: Udou Shinohara
Publisher: Digital Manga Guild
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Fantasy, Shojo, Slice of Life

Synopsis:

Peace Pet Rental’s Lag is a robotic dog. He can be pretty slow at times and can’t perform tasks aside from those written in his program, but despite all this, he’s everyone’s favorite dog. Soon, however, he is tackling people’s problems in ways not included in his program, and it seems almost miraculous… Something mysterious has awakened within his heart even though he’s supposed to be a machine with no emotions. What is Lag’s true nature? For those lost in despair and sorrow and those with wounded hearts comes this healing tale of love, kindness, and sacrifice.

A few reviews ago i criticised DMG for apparently doing more Yaoi than anything else, well it’s good to see they’ve spread their wings and now cover most genres!! As a fan I’m really happy to see this, since it looks like DMG is going to become the publisher i was hoping for!!

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this volume, but it really won me over. It’s cute, but not sappily so.

The characters are really good and you can’t help but get attached to them. what’s really weird though is that the main character for this story is on that can’t talk or anything, it’s a dog…a robot dog. The other characters we get are equally interesting, though i think Shiki, Lag’s programmer/owner is the best character.

The problem with one shots like this is that to much information is dumped on the reader leaving them feeling the story is to quick and not making much sense. However this isn’t the case in this volume. Rather we get the basic facts and then learn the rest as we go. It’s got a more of a ‘snap shot’ feel to it. This worked really well in this story and i feel it really made it easier to follow along.

One aspect that really got my attention was that despite being a shojo there was no forced romance. The little we got was a teaser that had a good feel to it, one i would like to see play out. Rather the focus is all on Lag, how he grows and develops both as a machine and a dog.

The development of Lag was done really well, i liked how his changes had a fluid natural feel to them. The progression over the course of the volume was perfect, so much so that when we get to the last chapter and things go the way they do it doesn’t feel forced, rather it’s a perfectly natural thing.  The way the people reacted to the truth and situation was really amazingly well done.

Initially i didn’t really like the art style, which really didn’t fit the story. And if I’m honest at times i do still feel that way. It’s got to much of a shojo vibe going on, and for some of the characters it really is over the top. That’s a minor gripe though, since the story easily carries it through my issues with the art style. Truth be told the only complaint I’ve got is it’s a one-shot!! Curse you Udou!! we need more of Lag!!

DMG did a solid job with this release, but once again i found some text hard to read at times. On the kindle version, due to both the font used and small screen, it was impossible to read some of the text. Using the Kindle app on the PC made it easier, but there was still some issues at times. They either need to nock the font up a point or two, or go for simple fonts.

That aside though it was a great attempt by the DMG guys and it’s really great to see them spreading their wings and embracing other genres than Yaoi. This is a great title and well worth purchasing.

Author: Ryu Sheng